


Enemy Territory

by leiascully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Awkward Tension, Caught In The Middle, Exes, Gen, Uncomfortable Coworker Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: Mulder got stuck in the elevator with Scully and Diana.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Enemy Territory

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Season 6  
> A/N: For an anon on tumblr.

Mulder wasn’t paying attention when he walked into the elevator. He was thousands of miles away, knee-deep in the snow, examining the tracks of a potential sasquatch. The photo paperclipped into the file wasn’t particularly grainy, but the contrast wasn’t high enough for him to be able to see a lot of detail. He glanced up, saw Scully and Diana, smiled briefly, and then realized the danger he was in. He took a step back, hesitated, and glanced at Scully. She was glowering at him. If he tried to turn and leave the elevator, she’d probably grab the back of his coat and haul him back in. He glanced at Diana. She looked just as dangerous. 

Fuck, he thought, and stood between them. The tension in the air was suffocating. He flipped through the pages of the fil, pretending to read them. None of them said anything. Finally, the elevator reached the basement. It dinged cheerily. The doors slid open. He tried not to bolt out. He didn’t even know what they were doing in the basement. He’d been on his way to their exile desks on the sixth floor. But Scully strode out confidently, just a step ahead of Diana, so he trailed along behind them. 

“Did you need something, Agent Scully?” Diana asked, ice crackling around the edges of her voice. 

“My reading glasses,” Scully said, equally chilly. “I kept them in a cabinet in the lab. I was wondering if they survived the mysterious fire that someone set in our office to destroy our life’s work.” 

“Fascinating,” Diana said. “You know, Agent Scully, my name is in a number of those files as the agent of record. Maybe even more than yours.”

“I’m aware of that fact, Agent Fowley,” Scully said. “I’ve corrected quite a few inaccuracies in those reports, and a truly astonishing number of typographical errors. Word processing software has certainly improved since you abandoned the X-Files the first time.”

Mulder swallowed hard. Scully jostled past Diana and into the basement office. Diana glared at him and he tried not to hide behind his file. He followed Scully into the office. She was rattling around in the lab, banging drawers open and shut like she owned the place. He’d never seen her act this territorial. Meanwhile, Diana stood in the doorway with her arms crossed, staring them down like a security guard. Scully turned up a glasses case, a little smudgy with dust. Mulder wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t pulled them out of her pocket. 

“Found them,” she said. “So glad to see something survived the blaze, despite the traces of accelerant that were found. But I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that, Agent Fowley.”

“Of course not,” Diana said in a measured voice. “Fox, did you need to look for anything?”

“Ah, no,” he said. “I’m good.” 

“Glad to hear it,” she said. 

Scully, shoulders straight, stalked out of the office. Mulder drifted in her wake. He could feel Diana’s eyes on him. He wasn’t going to turn around. Scully would slow-roast him and eat him for lunch if he collaborated with the enemy, or even conversed with her. It was a delicate situation. Today he was erring on the side of caution. Scully still had his favorite t-shirt at her house. He couldn’t risk it. He stood behind her as she stabbed the button. 

“Fox,” Diana said as the elevator doors started to slide closed, but he pretended not to hear her.

“What’s that?” Scully asked, nodding at the file in his hands.

“Sasquatch,’ he said. “In Idaho.”

“Maybe we’ll take a detour from our next manure tour,” she said, her eyes still tight and grim. “Go ‘squatching.”

“I’ll pack my hiking boots,” he said.


End file.
